The Essential Connie Smith

The Essential Connie Smith
Compilation album by Connie Smith
Released	April 1996
Recorded	July 16, 1964 – April 11, 1972
Genre	Country, Nashville sound
Length	50:41
Label	RCA Nashville
Producer	Bob Ferguson (original sessions) Ethel Gabriel Steve Lindsey
Connie Smith chronology
Live in Branson, MO, USA (1993) The Essential Connie Smith (1996) Connie Smith Sings Her Hits (1997)

The Essential Connie Smith is a compilation album by the American country artist Connie Smith. It was released in April 1996 on RCA Records and was produced by Bob Ferguson and Ethel Gabriel. The album is a collection of Smith's major hits recorded under RCA Victor Records between 1964 and 1972.

Background

The Essential Connie Smith contains twenty tracks of material that Smith had recorded for the RCA Label. Of the tracks, nineteen were singles ("How Great Thou Art" was the only exception), including Smith's biggest hit, "Once a Day", which spent eight weeks at #1 on the Billboard Country Chart in 1964 and 1965. The album also includes Smith's other well-known hits such as, "Cry, Cry, Cry", "Burning a Hole in My Mind", "Just One Time", "I Never Once Stopped Loving You", "The Hurtin's All Over", "If It Ain't Love (Let's Leave It Alone)" and her cover version of Marty Robbins's "Ribbon of Darkness". The Allmusic critic, Thom Jurek, called the album's production "classic" and credited Smith's original producer, Bob Ferguson and country artist, Bill Anderson for making the compilation, "one of the best collections in the RCA Essential series to come down the pike".^[1][2]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[3]
CD Universe	[4]

The Essential Connie Smith gained mainly positive reviews from music critics. The Allmusic reviewer, Thom Jurek gave the compilation five out of five stars, giving it the "album pick" from Smith's other compilations. Jurek praised Smith's voice, stating, "Connie Smith is perhaps the only female singer in the history of country music who can truly claim to be the heiress to Patsy Cline's throne. It's not that there aren't many amazing vocalists in the field, and plenty of legends among them. But in terms of the pure gift of interpretation of taking virtually any song and making it a country song of class and distinction, Smith is it." Jurek further said that all of the album's tracks were "pure honey and silk".^[1]

The album received a less positive review from Slipcue.com, which called it a "tepid retrospective". The reviewer said, "Yeah, it's got a few of the good ones on it, but not enough. If you've never heard Connie Smith before, and you're curious -- yes, this is pretty much the place to start."^[5] CD Universe gave it four and a half out five stars, saying, ""...The early, swinging sides have stood the test of time....and the closing `How Great Thou Art' points to her future born-again gospel career--as well as being a truly moving delivery of the song..."^[6]

Track listing

Personnel

• Connie Smith – guitar, lead vocals

Technical personnel

• Wade Jessen – liner notes
• Deb Mahalannobis – design
• Benny Quinn – digital remastering

References